Air Asia Co

Bell Helicopter to Establish Maintenance Center in Taiwan: A unit of Taiwan Aerospace Corp. will open a maintenance center for aircraft made by Textron Inc.'s helicopter unit, a company official said. James Chen, president of Air Asia Co., said Bell Helicopter will sign the agreement with his company in Taiwan later this month. Ft. Worth-based Bell Helicopter currently has a maintenance center in Singapore; the new maintenance center will be at Air Asia's Tainan facility in southern Taiwan.

Bell Helicopter to Establish Maintenance Center in Taiwan: A unit of Taiwan Aerospace Corp. will open a maintenance center for aircraft made by Textron Inc.'s helicopter unit, a company official said. James Chen, president of Air Asia Co., said Bell Helicopter will sign the agreement with his company in Taiwan later this month. Ft. Worth-based Bell Helicopter currently has a maintenance center in Singapore; the new maintenance center will be at Air Asia's Tainan facility in southern Taiwan.

Later it settled on a more modest $260-million partnership deal with British Aerospace. Both projects fell apart, and embarrassed Taiwanese officials admit they were too ambitious. Still, Taiwan hasn't given up on its dream. No longer content with making toys, shoes and cut-rate appliances for the world, it wants to be a player in the aerospace industry.